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Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Ringling Brothers Got Nothin’ On The Madness

Coach and one-time national champion coach Jim Herrick once said the greatest show on Earth wasn’t a circus or a Broadway play but the NCAA Tournament. Many of us would fully support that statement and either have our bags packed for Vegas or reserved the time off of work on Thursday and Friday of next week to watch a back-to-back 12-hour marathon games on consecutive days. If March Madness is the greatest show on Earth then those first two days are the greatest in sport period. Schools that we have never seen before leaving everything they have on the floor with the only reward being the opportunity to play again in a couple of days. In fact this year’s tournament is shaping up to be one of the best round-by-round ever. So good that it might draw all of the focus away from what has started out to be an amazing championship week, where the first tickets to the big dance are handed out.
In case you’ve missed it in the course of making your travel plans, for most of the early conference tournaments every game is a Game 7 because only the winner will be getting an Evite for next week. Conferences where injustice amounts to drama and this year is no exception as a school like Davidson can almost run the table during the regular season at 15-1 but get knocked out the conference tourney and watch third place and 12-loss Wofford take snatch their tickets out of their hands. Or Robert Morris (14-2) out of the Northeast Conference, one that only has one ticket to share amongst its ten members, surrender their ticket to 5th place Mount St. Mary’s who will hold the dubious honor of the worst record of all dance attendees at 16-16. But that’s what makes it great the sorrow only surpassed by the elation of the fact that your season’s not over.
With that preface in mind here the early RSVP’s for party of the year, strike up the band.
Mercer Bears
Conference: Atlantic Sun
Record: 26-8
Ticket-clincher: Mercer 68, Florida Gulf Coast 60
Leading scorer: Langston Hall (14.7 PPG)
Tournament appearance: 3rd (First since: 1985)
Coastal Carolina Chanticleers
Conference: Big South
Record: 21-12
Ticket-clincher: Coastal Carolina 76, Winthrop 61
Leading scorer: Elijah Wilson (16.1 PPG)
Tournament appearance: 3rd (First since: 1993)
Delaware Fightin Blue Hens
Conference: Colonial
Record: 25-9
Ticket-clincher: Delaware 75, William & Mary 74
Leading scorer: Devon Saddler (19.7 PPG)
Tournament appearance: 5th (First since: 1999)
Milwaukee Panthers
Conference: Horizon
Record: 21-13
Ticket-clincher: Milwaukee 69, Wright State 63
Leading scorer: Jordan Aaron (14.9 PPG)
Tournament appearance: 4th (First since: 2006)
Harvard Crimson
Conference: Ivy
Record: 26-4
Ticket-clincher: Won Ivy League regular season (no conference tournament)
Leading scorer: Wesley Saunders (14.0 PPG)
Tournament appearance: 4th (First since: 2013)
Manhattan Jaspers
Conference: Metro Atlantic
Record: 25-7
Ticket-clincher: Manhattan 71, Iona 68
Leading scorer: George Beamon (19.2 PPG)
Tournament appearance: 7th (First since: 2004)
Wichita State Shockers
Conference: Missouri Valley
Record: 34-0
Ticket-clincher: Wichita State 83, Indiana State 69
Leading scorer: Cleanthony Early (15.8 PPG)
Tournament appearance: 11th (First since: 2013)
Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers
Conference: Northeast
Record: 16-16
Ticket-clincher: Mount St. Mary's 88, Robert Morris 71
Leading scorer: Rashad Whack (17.6 PPG)
Tournament appearance: 4th (First since: 2008)
Eastern Kentucky Colonels
Conference: Ohio Valley
Record: 24-9
Ticket-clincher: E. Kentucky 79, Belmont 73
Leading scorer: Glenn Cosey (18.8 PPG)
Tournament appearance: 8th (First since: 2007)
Wofford Terriers
Conference: Southern
Record: 20-12
Ticket-clincher: Wofford 56, Western Carolina 53
Leading scorer: Karl Cochran (15.7 PPG)
Tournament appearance: 3rd (First since: 2011)
North Dakota State Bison
Conference: Summit
Record: 25-6
Ticket-clincher: North Dakota State 60, IPFW 57
Leading scorer: Taylor Braun (18.3 PPG)
Tournament appearance: 2nd (First since: 2009)
Gonzaga Bulldogs
Conference: West Coast
Record: 28-6
Ticket-clincher: Gonzaga 75, BYU 64
Leading scorer: Sam Dower (14.8 PPG)
Tournament appearance: 17th (First since: 2013)

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